Tony Mowbray was playing it cool yesterday as he fielded questions at the Hurworth press conference. He isn’t one to get carried away in defeat so he cerrainly isn’t now as we look to go top of the league. Hopefully the calm head will stear us to victory tonight and onwards and upwards.

Q : Tony this is a fantastic run you are on, what’s the difference now from the start of the season, when it was win one lose one?

TM: Well I think every team strives for consistency, I think we have obviously been trying to do that amongst the injuries that we have picked up along the way. I feel this year we probably have more attacking options than we had last season, which is allowing you to score goals and win games.

We’ve obviously got Andre Bikey come in and give us a bit of consistency in selection at the back. Woodgate and Hines seem to alternate, Jonathan finds it difficult to play 3 games in a week, but Andre has adapted to both of them.

Certain players if you look at the side have been there almost right through, the likes of Leadbitter plays just about every minute every week.

I think having a squad of good players and utilizing them early season, the gelling of a lot of new players coming together.

It was a summer of change, in the summer a lot of players left, a lot of new players came in and it sometimes take a while for them to understand each other, never mind other formations or tactics we might be using.

Q: If you are keeping clean sheets it makes everyone’s life easier?

TM: We had a spell early on where we conceded too many, at Blackpool 4 and Millwall 3.

We’ve found the balance now with consistency, Andre came in and gelled particularly well with Woodgate or Hines, whoever is playing the game, Parnaby has stepped into the fore as well and shown what a high quality footballer he is.

George Friend has nailed down the left back position, if there is a bit of stability in front of them it has generally been Leadbitter, McEachran and Bailey have been the players playing a lot of football for us.

A bit of consistency of selection around those areas has helped the goals against column and I should mention young Steele of course who is doing exceptionally well and looks to have matured this this year and helps when you have got a goalkeeper making good saves.

Q: Should we expect to see Jonathan Woodgate?

TM: He trained today and yesterday, I think as long as his body feels right and ready for the game there is a fair chance Woody will pull a shirt on.

I have to say the professionalism of Seb Hines to deal with that situation has been first class. Yet Seb has a few injury issues himself and I think the balance is working really well for us to be fair, having the ability to rest one because I think both find the intensity of the games, 7 games over the last 3 week period is very difficult for any footballer to produce the same level of performance every 3 days for 3 weeks.

Q: What about Sheff Wed

TM: We are very respectful of every team in this league, they have got speed on both sides of the pitch, good power off the wings, big physicality up top and good midfield.

You can see why they did well last season, they started the season well but sometimes confidence can get knocked, they will be striving to get back on the right track.

It’s live on TV, it’s a big game for them, they will be coming here making life difficult for us and hoping to nick a goal because they do have some goal threats.

For us it is the next game, the last game in the block of 7 that we looked at 3 weeks ago, we’ve done pretty well in those games, so we will see if we can finish that little block off that we talked about before giving them a few days break.

Q: How would it feel to finish that block off and for 24 hours to see Boro top of the league?

TM: I don’t put a lot of stock of been top of the league in any period other than when the whistle blows on the last day.

It’s about accumulating points, a win gives us 3 more points, and yes the nice bonus of been at the top of the table for a period of time.

We are ticking along quite nicely, any team that is looking to get promoted generally have to find the consistency of 46 games to find 2 points a game just at this moment. If we were to win on Friday we will be 2 points a game.

So lets keep going, try and enjoy it, let’s hope there are a few more supporters in and we can give them something to shout about.

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